Wilting Lily
by Wingless-I-Fly
Summary: The Marauders had finally succeeded in tearing apart the one girl everyone thought to be indestructible. They broke her; beat her. And all anyone could do now, was watch on as a wilting Lily walked away defeatedly, resembling that of a flower dead in the dark. LJ a darker, AU version of the Marauders Era


_Wilting Lily_

_Disclaimer: Do not own that which is owned to the great J.K. Rowling _

_Prologue_

_L~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~_**J**

_Breathe. _

In through your mouth, out through you nose. Or if you so choose, in through you nose and out through your mouth. It doesn't really matter, as long as you inhale the oxygen and release the carbon dioxide. Breathing is, of course, a necessary action if you plan to not be buried six feet under. However, at this precise moment, breathing was the only thing keeping a livid redhead from decapitating a pompous, messy-haired Marauder.

The entire Great Hall held their breaths in anticipation of the scenario about to erupt like an active volcano. Lily Evans, the previously mentioned ginger, not only fought back her anger, but also the tears that were so dangerously close to slipping free. The pain was excruciating; how couldn't it be when you just had an entire pot of boiling, black coffee poured on you.

Lily's body, especially her face, was a bright red in color, greatly resembling her hair color. But that fact went unnoticed by her as she was more worried about the searing pain rippling through her. Not an utter word was heard through out the hall. Finally, after a long minute, Lily's best friend, Alice, rushed out of her seat and hurried around the table to her soaking friend.

"Lily!" She called out as she sat in the open seat beside her,"are you okay?"

The redhead slowly nodded her head, stopping abruptly when the pain intensified.

"I'm fine," she breathed out shakily.

"No you're not. Look at you! I swear they are gonna pay this time," It was here that Lily cut her friend off.

"It's no worse then I've ever been before," Lily responded, and Alice could not reply to that for she knew it was true. Despite the fact that it was true, Alice waned nothing more than to stride up to the Marauders and deck them all across the face. She knew it would only make their torture towards Lily even worse, so she contained herself.

Lily, however, usually had no problem reprimanding them. It was her way of dealing with the hurt they inflicted upon her. At the moment she was incapable of moving, let alone storming off to fight with them. Her throat was dry, and her tears continued to form in her eyes, gradually coming closer to breaking through her barrier.

Alice was currently trying to get her friend to go to the hospital wing. But her attempts were futile; Lily had never gone to the hospital wing over the Marauders pranks before and she wasn't going to start now. Plus what was she going to say? That she accidentally spilled a bucket of steaming coffee over her head? The students were the only ones who saw the Marauders consistent harassment of the poor girl. Although the Professors had inklings to what was happening they were defenseless in doing anything as they had not proof.

Anyways if Lily did go to the hospital wing and rat them out, they would kill her. Or at least up their pranks all the more. Over the last 4 years, Hogwarts beloved Marauders had singled Lily out and put her through hell. Why? If only she knew. If only anyone knew. Many nights were spent away as Lily tossed and turned, wracking her brain in order to find a reasonable explanation for why they treated her as such.

Was it her bloodline? Her muggle heritage seemed like they only possible reason, but then again they had never called her a 'Mudblood' in public as the Slytherins had. Though there were those notes...Everyday since the start of her seventh year, Lily had been receiving notes from someone, or someones, who obviously resented her background and disapproved of her attending Hogwarts. Whether it was the Marauders or not, she had no clue. All she knew was that whomever was sending them was a coward for not being able to say it to her face.

"Lily, come on, let's just go tell the Headmaster," Alice said lightly, sick of seeing her friend suffer, and truthfully so was most of the school. In the beginning the whole student population had eaten it all up, loving it, but over the years, as the pranks became more frequent and all the more harmful, they began to question why Lily only ever yelled at them and never tattled. It boggled them how she just took the pain, doing nothing more then fighting with them. If they weren't so afraid of being stuck in her position, then they would have stood up for her.

"No," Lily murmured. "I just-I just need t-to go get changed and I'll be fine," she stuttered out.

Alice's shoulders slumped in despair, but nevertheless she helped her friend up from the table. Lily bit back a scream, as the pain shot through her like a lightening bolt. She wrapped her arm around her taller friend's waist and slowly began walking. The hall waited for Lily to stop in front of where the Marauders sat and give them an earful, but she didn't. A collective gasp sounded as Lily continued past the four smug looking boys, without even looking at them.

Everybody in the hall shared a look of confusion as Lily Evans walked on with her head hung down, including the four boys that caused her pain. And then, when nobody thought anything could get any more peculiar, a lone tear slipped from her startling emerald orbs, and cascaded down to the marble floor, the eyes of everyone following it.

It was then that everybody realized what just happened. It was all over. The Marauders had finally succeeded in tearing apart the one girl everyone thought to be indestructible. They broke her; beat her. And all anyone could do now, was watch on as a wilting Lily walked away defeatedly, resembling that of a flower dead in he dark.

_L_~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~**J**

Thank you all for reading! For all of you who follow my other two stories, I'm so sorry that they've been void for so long but I just haven't had any inspiration to write them as of yet. I have not given up hope on them yet though!

Hopefully you liked it! Let me know either way (:

'Til later,

Katie(:


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